Expeditions

Again River Waterfall Expedition

Adam Shoalts

Click for an enlarged map of the expedition route (Source: Google Earth)

The nearly 100-kilometre long Again River was only added to the map of Canada in the 20th century as a result of aerial photography. After two failed attempts, Adam Shoalts reached the river's isolated headwaters in 2012 by a tortuous overland route to explore it, an experience that he blogged about for Canadian Geographic . Given the unexpected discovery of the seven waterfalls, Shoalts, with backing from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, will return to the river, retrace his arduous route and this time photograph, measure and document the precise location of each waterfall so that they can be added to the relevant topographical maps pending verification from Spot satellite imagery.

It was in 2012 that explorer Adam
Shoalts plunged over a yet-to-becharted
northern Ontario waterfall and
into the limelight. On that expedition, he
became the first person to complete an
end-to-end navigation of the 107-kilometre
Again River, which runs through the
Hudson Bay Lowlands. With funding
from The Royal Canadian Geographical
Society, Shoalts returned to the Again in
2013, to map the waterfall and four other
previously uncharted falls.

He set out alone on the Kattawagami
River, dragging his canoe up an
unnamed tributary to a nameless lake,
portaging about 30 kilometres through
muskeg and boreal forest to the Again’s
headwaters. From there, he followed
the river north to its confluence with
the Harricanaw River and ultimately to
James Bay.

In a Canadian Geographic exclusive
online feature, Brian Banks writes, “It
had been about six years since Adam
Shoalts, at the behest of others, took to
calling himself an ‘explorer.’” Read the
whirlwind account of everything that’s
happened to the young adventurer since.